Vancouver Regional FreeNet Association
Board Meeting
411 Dunsmuir, Vancouver -- July 18, 1995
MINUTES
Attendance: Brian Campbell (chair), Margaret Coates, Stephen Gauer, Lorne
Gray, Neil K. Guy, Larry Kuehn, George Lindholm, Ross Penner (recorder), Eric
Teachman, and Vic Vaivads. Absent: Penny Goldsmith, Tom Hanson, Eric Yung.
1. Call to Order at 7:00 p.m.
2. Adoption of Agenda as altered M/S Larry Kuehn, Vic Vaivads; Passed.
3. Minutes of June 27, 1995 were not available.
4. Staff Organization (in camera)
Recommended that a FreeNet Coordinator be appointed to attend Board
meetings and funnel projects from the Directors through her to the
staff.
M/S Larry Kuehn, Lorne Gray that the VRFA create the position of FreeNet
Coordinator and appoint Kathy Fournier to it to coordinate staff.
Passed.
HDRC slippage has amounted to about 6 person months (for one position).
VRFA to approach HRDC to
fund the appointment of one position to work with community groups for
uploading and with volunteers for training uploaders. This is to be a
more technical position. M/S Margaret Coates, Larry Kuehn that the VRFA
hire Jason Currell as Community Upload Coordinator. Passed.
S. 25 Project has 12 more weeks that couldn't be used with the current
staff. Phil Lyons is qualified for this work. M/S Margaret Coates, Larry
Kuehn that the VRFA appoint Phil Lyons to the position subject to HRDC
approval. Passed. (end of in camera session).
5. Board Structure (Brian Campbell)
M/S Larry Kuehn, Margaret Coates that a committee be struck to bring a
recommendation to the next meeting that up to six Member-at-Large
positions be created and to discuss the mechanism for committee
representation. Passed.
The following were appointed as members of the above-mentioned
committee: Steven Gauer and Lorne Gray (co-chairs); President or
designate; Kathy Fournier.
6. Nominations Committee Report (Brian Campbell)
Eight directors are willing to stand.
7. On-line Fundraising Campaign (Kathy Fournier)
Summary: on-line request for funds; vendor VISA/MasterCard accounts;
similar format with ongoing use statistics.
M/S Lorne Gray, Larry Kuehn that the Board authorize Kathy Fournier to
proceed as outlined in her written report. Passed.
8. Sun System Purchase (George Lindholm)
It was recommended that we stay with Solaris as that is where we have
our experience. A 40% discount is available from Sun.
M/S Larry Kuehn, Vic Vaivads that the Board accept the proposal to spend
up to $35,000 (Cdn). for a Sparc 20 Model 71 (single CPU, 160MB RAM,
Solaris upgrade license, 2GB drive, Solaris media). Passed.
N.B. a second CPU would cost $7700; extra RAM would cost $3200/64MB;
documentation would be $1000.
9. Newsgroups (George Lindholm)
CBC would like a newsfeed of the vrfa.* groups. The Board grants Kathy
Fournier discretion to deal with this issue.
10. Web Server and Languages (Kathy Fournier / Neil Guy)
Some discussion regarding problems and possibilities of foreign language
material via web on our system. Kathy Fournier to do further research
into this area.
11. Committee Reports
a) Treasurer (Tom Hanson; none)
b) Community Content (Ross Penner; up to 63 Information Providers now)
c) Hardware/Software (George Lindholm; as per above Sun purchase)
d) System Design (Vic Vaivads; none)
e) Fundraising (Kathy Fournier; as above)
f) Public Relations (Neil Guy; Brian and Kathy are to meet with a
potential volunteer who has marketing experience. We should focus on
what our users and IP's want).
g) Membership Coordinator (Eric Teachman; 3 weeks ago we had 6391 user
accounts and approximately 1800 members. There are 5 volunteers updating
the membership list.)
h) Volunteer Coordinator (Lorne Gray; Lorne Gray and Jack Vickery hold
volunteer orientations on the 2nd Saturday of the month. Lisa Penney is
dealing directly with volunteers.)
i) User Training (Stephen Gauer; User Training is on the 2nd and 3rd
Saturdays of the month. LCD panels are being donated by Sharpe and VPL.
There is a BCIT volunteer who is willing to do a 2 hour video for VRFA
use. 8 Trainers are now available. Some training is being done at Neil
Squire Foundation offices. Help Pages 4, 5, 6, and 7 are almost done (e-
mail, lynx, upload/download)).
j) Labour Liaison (Larry Kuehn; Met with the Labour Council the previous
week (20+ people). They are interested in homepages.)
k) Public Access (Penny Goldsmith; a report was distributed)
12. Office Computer Upgrade (Jason Currell)
The request to upgrade the office 486 from 4 to 8 MB RAM was referred to
the next Operations Committee meeting.
13. System Administrator (Margaret Coates)
Tim Guay (guay@freenet) has been appointed system administrator.
14. News Releases (Ross Penner)
A request to allow staff to send out timely and more frequent news
releases was deferred to the next Operations Committee meeting.
15. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 9:04 p.m.
[Minutes corrected as per resolution of August 8, 1995 meeting.]